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Chapter 19 - Wellesley

Wellesley 9:45 pm

Falling back into the fog a second time did not make the humid black freefall any more pleasant. Kuina's monstrous shrieks followed us down into the pit, fading more and more as we continued down. The air around us pulsed and throbbed and slid against my skin like tar. I could feel poisonous tendrils trying to work their way into my brain, trying to find fear to latch on to pull us into a new hell. I tried to fight, but I was using all my energy to keep ahold of Zoro. A click echoed in my mind. I had time to gasp out a teary no, and then I was falling, my consciousness slipping away. I was so tired, energy near zero from the healing and dream walking, adrenalin crashing. The warmth that had been pressed against me cooled rapidly as I began to give in to the pull.

Whispers flitted in my ear. They said things like wouldn't a rest be nice? You should sleep, give in, and float away. It felt almost comforting, and they were right; I did deserve a rest. I loosened my arms and felt my body go lax. I'd rest. The fight would still be there when I woke. It was always there. The fog must have sensed my weakness and willingness to let go because the darkness began to take on color, blacks fading to blues and greys. Figures had started to take shape, one looking suspiciously like my father had the night he died.

Tears burned my eyes, and I felt myself reach toward him. I couldn't remember how I had gotten to the throne room or what I had been doing before that, but it didn't matter. Father was here, and I was finally safe. I called out, but my voice was soft and hoarse, barely a whisper. But he turned as if he'd heard me, and I had just enough time to see that his front was covered in blood, and his eyes were just empty sockets. A scream lodged in my throat, and I tried to recoil but found my body was stuck. I could only move my head rapidly back and forth to try and shake off the horrid image before me, but the colors just became clearer and more vivid.

My father, the thing pretending to be my father, took one step down from the throne. His mouth opened, but only wordless gurgles and nearly black blood flowed out, and I could see his tongue had been cut out. I didn't want to see this. I didn't want to know this. My scream finally had built in enough volume to explode, blood-curdling and heartbroken from my lungs. My feet stumbled as I was suddenly unstuck from the floor, and the falling sensation washed over me again.

I expected to feel the hard marble, expected my tailbone to cry out as I landed flat on my ass. Instead, when I opened my eyes, the fuzzy darkness of the fog once again surrounded me, and strong arms gripped me tightly around my waist. They yanked me close, and my body, which had been so cold just a moment before, now felt like I was beside an inferno.

His voice was rough in my ear, "Hey, sweetheart, don't let it take you. Stay with me. Please. We are almost out of this fucking mess." For one horrible second, my brain fritzed out, trying to convince me that this was an enemy, someone who had been standing behind me to hold me still as that horrid parody of my father drew closer. But as my heart rate slowed and I took deep breaths laced with a hint of mint, a sense of calm settled over me.

Oh. I remembered now. Zoro. I was with Zoro. We were fighting our way out of the fear fog. I shook my head and gripped him tight, his shirt near ripping from how tightly my nails were dug in. The fearscape of my murdered father faded away to nothing, the fog around us now electrified and agitated at being denied a victim. Though the sting was nearly unbearable, I clung to Zoro and hid my face in his shoulder.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, I let it out slowly. "I-I'm here. I'm ok."

He squeezed a bit tighter, and I felt him nod against the top of my head. "I can't, I can't see you, but I think I felt you fading away. You were solid in my arms, but you had become like sand. I could feel you slipping away, and I... I couldn't let that happen."

I nodded again and held him as we fell faster and faster through the fog. I didn't know how to respond, so I said nothing. I felt warm and safe for the first time in so long, even though we were plummeting to an unknown end.

We didn't speak for what felt like hours, though it could have only been seconds. The blackness began to fade, and weak light flickered around us. God, let that mean this is almost over. I strained my eyes harder and saw Zoro's light green hair, flashes of his tan skin, and light grey eyes. He stared back at me, and a profound sense of relief settled across his face, mirroring my own.

The wind died down, and I could make out warbled voices now that that howling wasn't in my ears. They became clearer by the second, and eventually, I was able to pick out Fredric's unwelcome drawl.

The words were garbled, and I could only make out about every other word. "You know... a point. Maybe this... gone on... too long." A beat of silence. "...on the other hand..." Then, an explosion shattered in my ears. A gunshot. An agonized scream.

Zoro's head whipped frantically. "That was Sanji." His voice was high with panic and worry, accelerating my heart rate. I pushed back against the fog, hoping my will alone might make it fade faster.

The wind picked up again, blocking any further outside words. Fredric seems to have gained a bit more control over the fog, and I could feel it trying to suck us back in. I dug deep, found the last kernel of soothsy in my system, and blasted it outward. I felt my mind reenter my body. The solid sense of being whole again washing over me like water; the coolness of the throne room caused goosebumps to erupt across my skin.

The fog fell like a curtain had been dropped. The sudden light burned my eyes, and my knees hurt from where I had landed on them. Blinking away tears, I heard a sudden loud sneering cackle that I was unfortunately intimately familiar with. Zoro was cradled in my arms, his body laid across my bent knees, and he appeared to be struggling to force his body to move, but it wasn't quite ready to cooperate with him yet as his arms hung limply at his sides. His skin was covered in a sheen of sweat, and his hair matted down with it.

We locked eyes briefly and then turned toward the sounds of a struggle. Fredric stood with the barrel of his gun pressed to Sanji's temple. A puddle of blood had already begun to spread in a wide puddle around Sanji from the wound we could see in his leg. Dread filled me at the sight. Desire to jump into action and protect him filled me, but Zoro was faster. The swords he had dropped when the fog had swallowed him lay discarded beside his hand. His earlier lethargy was gone in seconds as adrenalin pumped through him. He fumbled at his side, and then he had that white-handled sword gripped tight, and he thrust up with all his strength.

Time slowed as the blade passed across my face on its way up. It flowed out from him as if it were just an extension of his arm. One moment, the blade was in an almost slow motion; the next, time spread up, and it was slicing deep through the back of Fredric's shirt and then into the skin below.

Fredric let out a choked, wet-sounding gasp. He batted at the point of the sword, which stuck out from his chest. It must have hit either his lungs, heart, or both. His skin turned from its usual ruddy shade to an almost grey in seconds as he bled out. He finally gave one last wet-sounding gasp and sagged heavily on the sword, forcing the blade even deeper until I heard the widest section of the blade scrape against the vertebra in his spine. He batted weakly at it, but his arms lost their strength quickly until he could barely twitch his fingers. My gut twisted. Conflict over the satisfaction I felt watching this piece of garbage die and the guilt I felt from wishing that kind of thing about anyone.

Zoro heaved him to the side, and his body landed in a lifeless heap. I tracked the movement and waited for him to twitch, jump up, something to let us know it was all a trick. But Fredric didn't move; he only lay on his side, staring at the far wall with wide, unseeing eyes. Zoro brushed my shoulder with his fingertips, returning my attention to him. We briefly met each other's eyes. His were full of concern and an unasked question. I offered him a tight smile. I could see he didn't quite believe it, but he just took my hand in a quick squeeze before turning his attention back to Sanji.

We scrambled over to him, uncaring that his still-warm blood was seeping through our clothes. Sanji lay so still on his back, surrounded by a puddle of blood that was so large it was hard to believe there was any still left in his body. Fresh tears fell down my cheeks as I placed my shaking hands on his cheek. Without a thought, I called up the last dredges of my power and poured every ounce of it into him, hoping and praying that there was still a heartbeat, still a chance to bring him back from this. I slid my hand down his skin, careful to retain contact the whole time, till my fingertips rested at the pulse point in his neck. I let out a soft gasp of relief when I sensed a faint flutter.

"Oh, thank god." My voice was choked with unshed tears. Turning to the swordsman on Sanji's other side, I said, "Zoro, I need you to put pressure on his wound. I can heal him with my devil-fruit, but if he bleeds out before I can do that, we will lose him." Zoro's eyes were frantic when they met mine; they flicked between my eyes, he seemed to be searching. The mistrust that flickered in his eyes hurt, but I could understand; I was still a stranger about to use an unknown ability on his crewmate. He held my gaze for another moment before coming to some internal conclusion and pressing his hands down hard on the bullet wound in Sanji's leg.

Sanji let out a faint, agonized shout that tore at my heart. I hated that we were causing him any pain, but there was nothing that could be done about that now. Keeping him alive had to take president over saving him from pain.

"Shit!" Zoro's rough voice pulled my attention back to him.

"What? What's wrong?"

He sighed in exasperation and wiped the back of his wrist across his forehead, leaving a strip of Sanji's blood behind. "I can't get good enough pressure with just my hands." My eyes darted around, looking for something to help keep the blood in. My eye snagged on a bit of black fabric peeking out of Sanji's breast pocket. I snatched it and thrust it into Zoro's hands.

"Here, use this."

He took it and, for a moment, just stared at it and then at Sanji's face and then back before shaking his head and pressing the cloth firmly to Sanji's thigh.

The blood gushing from the wound slowed significantly, and I was able to take a calm breath and focus on calling forth my healing touch. My devil-fruit power was always so eager to be used, but now it was fighting me. I'd used it to heal so much damage done to me, and Nami, and Robin. I'd never been allowed to practice using it to any great extent, and it had reached its limit. I'd also damn near depleted my energy reserves by going dream-walking to save Zoro, so there was nearly nothing left.

"Fuck! Come on and fucking work!" Tears of frustration began to rush down my cheeks as I continued to call for ability and got zero response.

Straining hard, I felt wetness drip from my nose down and off my chin. I paid no attention to it as, at that exact moment, I finally found a flash of my healing power that I pushed into Sanji with desperation, causing his heart, which had been slowing, to begin beating at a more steady pace, though still slower than I would have liked. Now that I'd managed to get the power flowing, I tried to shift my focus, to move the healing power from just beating his heart to the bullet wound in his leg, but each time I shifted the power even a millimeter, his heart would slow, and his breathing would go shallow.

"Shit, Wellesley. Your nose is bleeding." Zoro's voice was concerned, but I couldn't think of anything else. The sliver of power I'd been able to wield was all that was keeping Sanji's heart beating, and if my concentration wavered for just a moment...

Anger built, and more tears flowed, and I let out an anguished screech, which must have surprised Zoro as he jumped a bit from his spot on Sanji's other side. Fuck, no, this isn't happening. You shitty fucking devil-fruit. I never wanted you. You've been nothing but the thing that allows me to be hurt over and over and over. But I refuse to let you do this. You will not take this, take him, from me. Now put on your fucking big girl pants, a fucking work!

I felt a slow drag, and it felt like a dam burst. Power suddenly filled me, and it was as if my very life force was at my fingertips. Without a second thought about how it might affect me, I forced it out and into Sanji.

He released a series of shuddering breaths but seemed to be having trouble keeping them going on his own. I pulled deep and gave him more and more. Zoro leaned up and whispered in Sanji's ear. Blood was rushing so fast in my ears that I couldn't hear what was said, but the tips of his ears were bright red as he pulled away. My hands slid down to lay atop Sanji's chest, and I could feel his heart beating strong; his breaths were coming steady, but I could still feel injuries buried deep that weren't quite healed yet, so I kept pushing and healing, determined to keep going until I was sure there was nothing left.

I'd lost myself in the task ahead of me, my surroundings forgotten, until warm hands wrapped around both my biceps. It was a shock. I hadn't realized how cold I was until that moment. Shivers wracked my body, and my bones and joints suddenly ached and creaked under my weight.

"Wellesley! Whatever you're doing, stop!"

"I-I-I, c-ca-can't. H-have to-o m-make s-sure h-he's o-okay."

"Sweetheart. He's going to be fine. The bleeding has stopped. The hole has healed over. He'll wake when he is ready. I'm more worried about you."

"M-me? W-why a-are you w-worried about m-me?"

He gave me a severe look, picked up one of my hands from Sanji's chest, and held it up in front of me. I didn't recognize it. The skin had greyed, the bones stood out prominently, and dark spots washed up my arm as far as I could see.

I stared at my hand in horror before reaching up and running my hands over my face, neck, and collarbones. I felt only thin skin and the sharp outline of bones. I cried out softly as my hand came away, snagging on a brittle strand of my hair. Looking up at Zoro with a watery eye, I pulled my remaining hand away from Sanji's chest, and the shivering stopped immediately. He leaned up and hauled me into a bone-crushing hug, tucking my head against his neck so that my nose pressed tight against the skin there.

"Jesus, you're cold." His strong hands rubbed up and down my arms, leaving a trail of fire in their wake. I closed my eyes against the tears I could feel gathering there and leaned on him. I could already feel my body fighting to heal the damage I'd done, but it was like trying to push a dozen boulders up a hill at once.

Zoro pulled away and held me at arm's length. His face was awash with confusion, but I saw a tinge of relief as his eye flitted over the parts of me that had desiccated. He wiped the tears that had fallen on my cheeks and the blood from under my nose and chin. "I think you overdid it."

I nodded. "I've never had this happen before, " I said in a heavy, sad huff. "It'll probably heal itself eventually, though it will probably take days."

Zoro took my hand and stared at it thoughtfully before pressing it to the skin of his chest, which was visible on the open 'V' of his shirt. "Do you think you can take as well as give?"

I pondered the question for a moment. But then the image of Zoro's beautiful golden skin sucked of color and vitality, flitted across my mind, and in horror, I tried to rip my hand from him. He held fast, still gentle, but he wasn't going to let me go until he made his point. "No, Zoro. What if it hurts you? I'll heal this on my own eventually. You don't have to worry." He just pressed my hand against his warm skin a bit harder.

"I trust you." The words made me feel warm, but the fear was still there as I felt the tips of my fingers tingle. Another aspect of my power had awoken, and it was dying to be let out to play. I stared into Zoro's kind grey eyes, and he looked back at me steadily, so sure it would be ok that he was putting his literal life into a stranger's hands. I closed my eyes and visualized this new power in my mind. It whirled and twirled through my mind. Gusty and dark like a cyclone. A spout trying desperately to suck up anything that was in its path. I visualized a cinch around the very bottom of the spout and pulled it taunt to control the flow's strength.

I took a deep breath in. Then, I loosened the cinch by a few inches. I felt Zoro's life force rush in as he let out a punch of breath. I stopped it immediately and looked up at him again. "Did it hurt?" My voice was wobbly. Zoro shook his head. "No. No, sweetheart, it didn't hurt, but it's not exactly pleasant."

"I can stop. I'll stop." I pulled my hand away, but he pressed my palm flat till it was snug against his sternum. "No, Wellesley. Take what you need."

It was on the tip of my tongue to snip that I didn't really need any of his, but from his face, it was clear he would hear no arguments.

"Fine." It sounded bratty even to my ears, and he smirked a little at me. Just for that, I let the cinch on my power go a little faster than last time, giving him my own smirk as his shocked gasp filled my ears.

I could practically taste him as I pulled energy from him. Minty, sure, but I could also taste salt and metal. I could feel the rush of sea air and the anticipation for battle as if it were my own. I could feel his compassion, drive, and even his inner bloodlust. It was a marvelous feeling to know someone so intimately.

I watched as the skin on my hands filled back out, and the hair against my cheeks no longer felt as brittle as straw. His emotions were in turmoil, but I could feel that he was willing to give me everything he had, just as I had felt for Sanji not a moment before. I still felt weak and shaky, but I pulled away from Zoro before any real damage could be done to him. I watched him bow his head and take several deep breaths. "Are... are you ok, Zoro."

He surprised me by letting out a brief chuckle and looked up at me with eyes that were a bit glazed over and a face that was a bit pale, but otherwise, he looked perfectly fine. "I'm ok, sweetheart."

I smiled and opened my mouth to respond, but a cold voice sliced through the room before I could.

"What the fuck did you do to my brother!?"